I used to edit Innovation Management. My book, "The Elastic Enterprise", co-authored with Nick Vitalari and described as a must read for companies that want to succeed in the new era of business - looks at how stellar companies have gone beyond innovation to a new form of wealth creation. I speak on new innovation paradigms.
I started my writing career in broadcasting and then got involved in the EU's attempt to create an ARPA-type unit, where I managed downstream satellite application pilots, at just the time commercial satellite services entered the market. I also wrote policy, pre the Web, on broadband applications, 3G (before it was invented), and Wired Cities.
I have written for many major outlets like the Wall St Journal, Times, HBR, and GigaOm, as well as producing TV for the BBC, Channel 4 and RTE. I am a research fellow at the Center For Digital Transformation at UC Irvine, where I am also an advisory board member, advisory board member at Crowdsourcing.org and Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research.
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NIKE, If This Brand Were American You Could Be Toast

At the North Face sponsored Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc, the premier trail race in Europe and possibly the world, the brand Vibram is one of the most prominent. The streets themselves are bedecked with the Vibram logo. They are walking the walk, or running it, with their own five person team taking part in the 160 km (100 miles) race.

Vibram is probably one of the best brands you’ve never heard of – unless you regularly look at the soles of your shoes. They make specialty soles for outdoor-event footwear. It’s a highly technical business, with each sole customized to the needs of the shoe’s users – will it be for wet, dry, grass, rock, mud, ice. Their experience of fitting a sole to terrain and conditions means most specialist sports’ shoe brands sow their uppers onto a Vibram sole.

And Vibram is a success, turning about Euro 200 million a year in revenue in 2011. There is a catch though and maybe a clue to the EU’s parlous economy. Parts of Vibram’s business, with triple digit growth, would cause a VC or a private equity manager’s heart to beat faster. Vibram, however, is not so interested in growth. It is not so interested in becoming a Nike or an Adidas.Why?

On my own blistered feet I’m wearing Merrell minimalist cross-trainers and, sure enough, the sole is a Vibram. The blisters, by the way, are a hangover from the streets of Brussels and nothing to do with the trainers, which are as comfortable as a glove on a cold day.

Their minimalist styling, though, is another clue to Vibram’s products and success. About five years ago Vibram launched five finger shoes and they’ve quickly inspired a new line of thinking in footwear.

Five fingers, literally, are a glove for the foot. They are the least you could put on your foot without being barefoot – and barefoot is where the current interest in pro-footwear lies. The established brands like Nike and Adidas were caught napping by the barefoot trend. The barefoot philosophy is, in fact, a rejection of much of what Nike produce for the foot.

My Merrells follow the barefoot principle. In five finger and barefoot, the idea is to shod the foot with just enough to protect it but to leave the body’s natural running motion in tact.

Whereas a conventional shoe, like a Nike Air, is built for heel-striking when you run, barefoot throw you onto your sole. The difference in performance is incredible – I reckon it doubles my running distance and increases my speed by about 50%, just by virtue of bringing more leg muscle back into play, in place of those bone shuddering strikes from my other trainers.

The argument goes, if you have bad knees from running, or a sore hip, look at those padded heels and the air bubbles that have you wrecking your skeletal structure. Barefoot brings muscle back to your running, and saves your bones.

Vibram distributes five fingers directly via retailers. It’s the first time it has acted as a supplier of shoes. And business has gone from zero to approximately Euro 80 million since launch, with triple digit growth in fiscal 2011, on the back of highly visible wearers like Google‘s Sergey Brin.

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